A Jersey Central Power & Light worker clears Route 513 of fallen trees in Chester Township on Oct. 30, a day after Hurricane Sandy roared through. JCP&L and its parent company, FirstEnergy of Ohio, on Monday reported revenue declines for 2012.Star-Ledger file photo

The state’s second largest utility, Jersey Central Power & Light, today reported a decline in revenue and profit for 2012, with the effects from Hurricane Sandy also helping push down overall earnings at its Akron, Ohio-based parent company.

FirstEnergy Corp., which counts JCP&L as one of its 10 electric distribution subsidiaries in five states, said revenue fell 5 percent last year compared to 2011.

The parent company, which earned $15.3 billion in total revenue last year, noted the “unprecedented impact” from the October hurricane in restoration costs to its service territories in New Jersey, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Maryland.

In a conference call with investors and analysts, FirstEnergy executives attributed the decline — it reported a fourth-quarter loss of $148 million — in part to the effects of Sandy, along with one-time costs like pension and other post-employment benefits.

“Clearly, Hurricane Sandy had a significant impact on our company,” said chief financial officer James Pearson. The storm lowered distribution deliveries and retail generation sales, he said, and 10,000 employees were assigned to storm restoration for more than two weeks.

FirstEnergy general counsel Leila Vespoli said damage in New Jersey “was the most devastating,” which led JCP&L to spend $629 million to restore service.

On Friday, JCP&L sought to recoup that entire amount, announcing it had filed for permission from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to raise homeowners’ rates about 4.5 percent or more than $50 a year, to recover the costs.

The request includes a 1.5-percent rate hike request in November, to offset the costs from Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011, and a snowstorm that followed.

JCP&L generated $133 million in net income last year, down $11 million from the previous year, according to a separate filing FirstEnergy made today with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Total revenue for 2012 at the New Jersey utility fell 19 percent, to $2.02 billion. Fourth quarter numbers were not available.

JCP&L endured withering criticism in the wake of Sandy over its inability to properly update many of its 1.3 million customers about power outages and its slow response in dealing with those power failures. In some cases, customers remained in the dark two weeks after the Oct. 29 hurricane made landfall.

In a statement released today, Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Mercer) blasted the proposed rate increase as “an insult to injury for the thousands of New Jersey families and businesses who are still grappling on a daily basis with the devastation of Sandy...These are the very same customers who had no heat or electricity for days into weeks with little answers from JCP&L,” he wrote.

JCP&L spokesman Ron Morano, who has noted the request “covers the cost for all the damage we incurred,” said the company would not comment on the assemblyman’s statement.